Chapter 27
Barbie
Hard, cold rain fell from the sky. Wasn’t it supposed to be a warm night?
While my skin froze from the fever chills, my insides were boiling alive. The Seed of Heaven was bad news to old gods, and I was a direct descendant. The poison hadn’t killed me, but it was damaging me on a cellular level.
It hurt. Fuck, it hurt so much.
For a moment, I forgot where I was until I found myself bumping on Cami’s shoulder, shrieking in pain, as she tried to cross the bridge as fast as she could, protected in the center of our small group.
The princes and their warriors were fighting our enemies in all directions, cursing profusely. They should just leave me to save themselves. It was me that the Legion of the Brotherhood wanted.
Let them sacrifice me on their heavenly altar. My father had done the same to me and would do it again and again. The future was never supposed to have me in it.
Yet the princes kept fighting, not giving up on me, as did my friends who guarded me.
“You’ll be okay, Barbie,” Bea kept saying like a prayer. “You’ll be okay!”
But she couldn’t know that. I didn’t care about my fate, but I couldn’t bear to lose any of my friends. From upside down over Cami’s shoulders, I helplessly watched our team members go down one by one.
The princes could barely stand. Yet they still defended me. If I let this continue, they’d die here today.
I wouldn’t allow it. Now it was my turn to defend them. I’d give my last breath for them, for my friends, and for my new home.
I wouldn’t let them be doomed.
Today wouldn’t be the end of them!
A war song drummed in my bloodstream, battering my core magic over and over. It’d broken through the runes and spells laid out by my god father and defended me once. I needed it now more than ever. Even if it couldn’t purge the Seed’s death lock on me, it could still aid me one last time.
I was like no other. My power was like no other.
I summoned the dark flame, not reasoning with it but commanding it.
An unnatural sound tore out of my throat. I pulled away from Cami, levitating in midair above the bridge. My friends shouted my name in alarm, but I ignored their calls.
For a breath, the fighting all around the bridge froze, every eye on me.
“What is she?” A fearful murmur rose from an enemy soldier.
“An abomination!” the druid shouted. “Throw all you have at her. Don’t let her manifest!”
I flashed him a sugary smile. “Too late, babe.”
Give them hell, babe!Sy cheered. She’d come around from blackout when a rush of adrenaline pumped into my blood.
Jets of dark flame blasted out of me like an atomic bomb. It was so bright and so dark all at once that everyone shielded their eyes and staggered back. Their shouting increased.
The druid leapt over the railing of the bridge into the river, abandoning his brethren. A trail of smoke rushed away from the waves caused by the shockwaves of my dark flame.
When the flame vanished like the wind, every enemy was vanquished without a trace, just like what had happened to Medea.
“She erased the Legion of the Brotherhood with one blast,” someone said in fear and awe.
“Barbie has magic after all,” said Cade.
“She’s indeed something,” Silas said in satisfaction. “I was never wrong.”
“Really?” Louis retorted. “Didn’t you call her a chihuahua, mocking her ‘low magical grade’?”
“That stupid name for her came from your house in the first place!” Silas snarled.
I plummeted to the ground like a burned phoenix that had no wings anymore. Silas and Louis both lunged toward me, but the shifter prince caught me first, and Louis growled.
“I gotcha, Barbie,” Silas said.
“But she’s burning up!” Louis shouted beside me, his hand on my forearm.
Cade was at my side in a blink, feeling my neck with his finger. “Her pulse is very weak. We need to?—”
“Clear a path!” Rowan roared.
As I struggled at the edge of unconsciousness, I tried and failed to smile at the princes and my friends. I was thankful that they had survived. They were alive.
But my relief was short-lived.
A portal opened in the sky before we reached the end of the bridge. A new death squad poured out.
The cheers of victory died on everyone’s lips.
The princes were all injured, and I didn’t have a drop of energy or power left. The Seed of Heaven had reclaimed me, tormenting my every cell. Sy lay coiled in a corner, fighting not to pass out again.
“Save…yourself… Let me be taken…” I managed to tell the princes.
“Never!” Silas said.
“Please do it,” I begged.
If they refused, they’d all die.
We got this, Barbie! Pucker had returned. Help has come!
A roar from a pissed-off dragon thundered, so powerful and full of rage that it rattled my bones. Everyone on the battlefield froze in apprehension.
I smiled. Killian had come.
I could rest now. I could sink into oblivion, as I was bone tired. I hadn’t saved the day, but I’d bought enough time for the chaos prince to save it.
Lightning and starlight surged toward the open portal in the sky, the mightiest I’d ever seen. Several Brotherhood soldiers plummeted into the river, and the raging water swept their corpses away.
The next moment, Killian reached my side. He held my dimmed gaze and squeezed my hand to assure me that he’d protect me before nodding at Silas. The shifter prince didn’t argue and reluctantly handed me to Rock, who had fought his way to our side.
Now Rock was responsible for carrying me, as he had a lot more experience than others in that department.
“Brothers, will we guard what’s ours?” Killian roared.
“Always!” the other princes roared back.
“You have to ask, asshole?” Silas snarled. “And you’re late, as usual.”
Killian ignored him and called, “Let’s end this, shall we?”
All five princes held hands in a circle, their powers merging. Lightning, light, wind, fire, and ice formed a vortex, shooting toward the legion reinforcements. The enemies dropped like locusts before the portal sealed.
The last sight I saw was the raging river crashing into the ivory tower.
You’ve gone soft, Barbie.Sy gazed out weakly, her golden eyes alighting on the fae prince. Our foes will know your weakness now. You care too much. And you feel too much. It is starting to rub off on me.
We’re two peas in a pod, I offered before darkness took me over like a vast blanket.
But I wasn’t worried, since I wasn’t alone. Sy would be watching my six. And we had Killian, the other princes, and our friends.